Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset Meme

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One of the things that stuck out to me the most in Carol Dweck's TED Talk was about 1:47 when Dweck stated that students felt it was tragic and catastrophic when presented with a problem that they couldn't solve. 2 things really caught my attention, first being that "Instead of luxuriating in the power of yet, they were gripped by the tyranny of now" and the second being that the students stated that they would cheat next time if they failed a test. The reason this was so attractive to me is because this is exactly how I feel, and what I've noticed how others feel. It seems that many students, at all levels of education, feel that if they do not achieve their goal (in this case passing a test) then they believe that they are unable to obtain that goal and feel defeated. This sense of defeat is what leads many to find nontraditional and unethical ways to reach their goals, (i.e. cheating) as their original attempt resulted in failure so it must mean that there is no way ethical way to achieve this goal.

If I were able to meet Dweck and have a conversation about growth mindset, I would want to ask her if she believes that growth mindset has always been present, or it is a more modern philosophy that needs to be taught by parents and instilled in their children at a young age. I would want to ask this because I personally believe that the lack of those with a growth mindset is because of the way they were raised. I would use myself as an example, as my parents showered my brother and I with praise and compliments (sometimes even monetary gifts like a 5$ bill for good grades on our report card or a sundae for preforming well in our extra curricular actives) whenever we would achieve a goal or would preform something well. I believe that this Pavlov response is what leads to many failing to have the growth mindset. I believe that those raised similarly to I used this reward incentive to work harder to increase the frequency of the rewards (monetary or not) being given, and this is why they feel so defeated when they fail at something. I believe that they are used to flourishing and gaining that reward on the first try, that failure is so foreign that they just shut down. Of course, this is just my theory, so I would love to see what Dweck would think.